A low-budget production, for sure. The quality of the video image is quite jarring for a man who speaks of "Cinema" as an ideal that is out of reach of Switzerland. And not a very gracious comment, since they gave him an award and this is the thanks they get. Gracious or not, what Godard says here is all true: 5 minutes of world-weary and film-weary wisdom pearls from the Godardfather of Cinema.

Another Godard masterwork, an unusual tribute to Jerry Lewis, an assessment of so much in so small a time. "So I’m going home with The Ashes of Gramsci, a poem by Pasolini. It speaks of humble corruption." The placement of the camera always feels perfect here, always providing a bold, artful perspective. Godard is a great actor, and an under-appreciated director of slapstick humor.

Related films

British Sounds

We continue our series on the radical—politically and cinematically—films of Godard’s Dziga Vertov Group, named after the brilliant Soviet filmmaker. This experimental doc visits scenes of labor, feminism, TV production, and student agitation to create an agitpop exposé of this post-68 moment.

Wind from the East

Next in our Dziga Vertov Group series is this oddball Marxist western playfully set against a pastoral backdrop and featuring Anne Wiazemsky and Gian Maria Volonté. With a propagandist voice-over and characters breaking the fourth wall, Godard and Gorin dismantle the idea of cinema as entertainment.

A Film Like Any Other

Famous for his trailblazing films in the French New Wave, Godard controversially re-invented his cinema after the failed revolution of May ’68. Our series on his radical films with Jean-Pierre Gorin and under the name Dziga Vertov Group explores cinema’s capacity for political engagement and change.